Breakdown of Za mene je najveći uspjeh kad osjetim da malo po malo napredujem.
Questions & Answers about Za mene je najveći uspjeh kad osjetim da malo po malo napredujem.
Za mene literally means for me, in the sense of from my point of view / in my opinion.
- za always takes the accusative case.
- The accusative of ja is mene (long form; the short form is me).
So:
- ja = I (nominative, subject form)
- mene / me = me (accusative)
You must say za mene (or za me) because after za you cannot use ja; you need the accusative form.
Functionally, Za mene here means something like:
- As far as I’m concerned / for me personally
Both are grammatically correct, but they differ slightly in emphasis.
Za mene je najveći uspjeh...
- Fronts Za mene (for me), so it emphasizes my personal perspective.
- Roughly: For me, the greatest success is...
Najveći uspjeh je za mene...
- Fronts Najveći uspjeh (the greatest success), then adds za mene as a comment.
- Roughly: The greatest success, for me, is...
In everyday speech, the first version with Za mene at the start sounds very natural and nicely highlights that this is a subjective opinion. The second version is fine, but slightly shifts the focus onto najveći uspjeh as the topic.
Because je is the verb biti (to be), and Croatian, like English, often uses a predicate nominative after to be.
- uspjeh = success (masculine singular, nominative)
- najveći = biggest / greatest (masculine singular, nominative, agreeing with uspjeh)
The structure is:
- (Za mene) je najveći uspjeh ...
- (For me) is the greatest success ...
So both sides of je (it on the left, understood, and najveći uspjeh on the right) are in the nominative, just like in English you say He is a teacher, not He is a teacher-accusative.
Najveći is the superlative form of velik (big, great):
- veći = bigger
- najveći = biggest / greatest
Adjectives in Croatian agree with the noun in:
- gender
- number
- case
The noun is:
- uspjeh = masculine, singular, nominative
So the adjective must also be:
- masculine → najveći
- singular → najveći
- nominative → najveći
Other forms would agree with different nouns, for example:
- najveća sreća (feminine) – the greatest happiness
- najveće zadovoljstvo (neuter) – the greatest pleasure
kad and kada mean the same thing: when.
- kad is a shorter, more colloquial form.
- kada is slightly more formal or full-sounding, but still perfectly common in speech.
In your sentence, you can freely say:
- kad osjetim
- kada osjetim
No change in meaning; the choice is mostly about style and rhythm of the sentence.
Both come from osjetiti / osjećati (to feel), but the aspect and meaning differ:
osjetiti – perfective: to feel / sense something at a specific moment, to notice a feeling
- osjetim (1st sg. present) → I (come to) feel, I perceive, I notice
osjećati – imperfective: to be feeling something over time, ongoing state
- osjećam (1st sg. present) → I feel, I am feeling (generally / continuously)
In kad osjetim da malo po malo napredujem, the speaker is talking about the moment when they become aware that they are progressing. So osjetim (perfective) is natural:
- when I notice / when I come to feel that I’m progressing
Kad osjećam da... would sound more like when I (generally) feel that..., a more continuous or habitual feeling, and is less natural in this exact formulation.
da introduces a subordinate clause, similar to English that in that I’m progressing.
The structure is:
- osjetim da malo po malo napredujem
- I feel that little by little I am progressing
So:
- Main clause: osjetim (I feel)
- Subordinate clause: da malo po malo napredujem (that I’m making progress bit by bit)
Croatian very often uses da-clauses where English would use that-clauses, especially after verbs of thinking, feeling, knowing, saying, etc.
Literally:
- malo = a little
- po (here) = by
- malo = a little (again)
So malo po malo is literally little by little, and it is a very natural, idiomatic expression in Croatian. It means:
- gradually
- bit by bit
- little by little
Other similar expressions:
- korak po korak – step by step
- polako ali sigurno – slowly but surely (not identical, but similar idea)
Both word orders are grammatically correct.
da malo po malo napredujem
- Emphasizes the gradual nature of the progress right before the verb.
- Literally: that little by little I progress.
- Very natural and slightly more stylistic / expressive.
da napredujem malo po malo
- Puts the verb napredujem earlier and malo po malo after it, as an adverbial phrase.
- Literally: that I progress little by little.
- Also correct and understandable.
Croatian word order is quite flexible. Here, da malo po malo napredujem sounds especially smooth and rhythmic, so it’s a good stylistic choice.
napredujem is:
- verb: napredovati – to advance, to make progress
- person: 1st person singular
- tense: present
- aspect: imperfective (focus on the ongoing process)
So napredujem means:
- I am progressing, I make progress, I advance
In your sentence, it expresses ongoing, repeated, or gradual progress (especially with malo po malo), which is why an imperfective verb is appropriate.
Croatian has only one present tense form, but it covers both:
- English simple present: I progress
- English present continuous: I am progressing
Aspect (imperfective vs perfective) plus adverbs give the nuance. Here:
- napredujem (imperfective present) + malo po malo (little by little)
Together they clearly mean I am gradually progressing / I keep making small bits of progress, even though formally it’s just a simple present form in Croatian.
In standard Croatian, you should keep je:
- Za mene je najveći uspjeh kad osjetim...
The verb je (is) is required in careful, correct written language.
In very casual speech, especially in some dialects, people sometimes omit je in similar structures, but that is colloquial and not recommended for learners or for standard writing.